Tag Archive for Food

Thankful for our food!

November 21, 2012 / Mike Haley / One comment

Ice cream, bacon cheeseburger, cheese & broccoli, donuts, corn on the cob… These are just a few things that come to mind when I think about food.  I often take for granted all the work that it takes just to allow me to enjoy these wonderful foods.  Yes that is correct, I work daily caring for our livestock and soil to provide some of the first steps in the process that ultimately leads to food on my plate three times each day and all too often I selfishly devour my meal without a thought of all the hard work that allowed me to eat that meal.

However, this is not always the case as sometimes I stop and think about all the ingredients on my plate and some of the hard workers who made sure that it was possible.  Thanksgiving is no exception, and that is why today on the eve of my Thanksgiving meal I will be giving FoodThanks.

This is no simple task as there are several individuals who often are forgotten in our food system.  When thinking about growing our food for thanksgiving of course we have to give Food Thanks to the farmer who cared for the turkey and ham or who grew the potatoes or Rice but this is just the beginning of my foods journey to my plate.  When I give FoodThanks what I often think about the many other hard working individuals who make my food and Thanksgiving meal possible as that starts long before the farm.

Farmers need tools in order to operate efficiently, as a farmer I am very thankful to those who provide materials to construction workers who help build barns for our livestock and those who invest in research and technology so we can have seeds that perform well for the specific soils on our farm in many different environments.

I often think about the Butchers who have mastered the art of processing the many animals on farms into cuts that are easy to cook and prepare for meals, the truck drivers that not only ship our goods from the fields but also work hard to safely move foods from processors to the grocery store where there are several other hard workers who deserve many thanks for our food!

I am still just brushing the surface of the many individuals of whom I can give FoodThanks to as many thanks can go to scientists, traders and most definitely Chefs!

In what ways are you thankful for your food?  Join in with several others from across the globe and help share your FoodThanks today on Facebook, with a tweet, or a pin and share blog posts about your favorite foods and other things you are thankful about over this year’s holiday season.

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Science, Emotion, Food Choices & Agvocating

August 14, 2012 / JanHoadley / 8 comments

Jan Hoadley

So often when consumers disagree with something we do, we respond with a scientific study. When they don’t respond well we get defensive and accuse them of being emotional. Wait…who got *emotion* involved…defensive is an emotion! They state a preference, maybe for reasons we don’t agree with but a preference.

Farmers are often passionate about what we do -from the truck we drive to the tractor paint to the cattle in the barn. Yet we respond with science because that’s what we make so many decisions on.We can playfully argue John Deere/IH or Holstein/colored cows or Dodge/Chevy for hours, but few take that as a personal insult.

So picture this – you sit down to a meal that smells heavenly. It’s been a long day and you’re hungry. You take a bite and as the flavors melt together do you think “this tastes *efficient*?” This has all the proteins, amino acids, carbs and everything I need and therefore is a balanced ration? It has X grams of fat, protein and salt. No – it’s emotion. It tastes awesome. Someone made the meal special.You enjoy it.

How many sit down for their morning coffee at the local cafe – there’s a new waitress and she asks if you want cream. Do you jump in her face and say how dare she drink her coffee differently than you? Some might, but probably won’t be welcome at the cafe very much! Difference of opinions is not personal. Why do we take difference of opinions personally?

If someone chooses to not eat dairy products, or doesn’t prepare eggs in the home, or avoids GMO produced foods why is it a means of attack that they have a food choice? None of us need the majority of the market, so if we truly support food choices why then criticize those who choose organic? Why criticize those who spend $250 on a heritage breed turkey? Why criticize those who surf the clearance shelf in the meat section to decide what they can afford to serve this week? All are making food choices!

Some time ago I ran across a poll that I did a blog post on – it was who do you like better, Madonna, Lady Gaga or neither. Over 68% said neither. 20% and 12% chose one or the other. 12% of the population has made Lady Gaga a superstar with millions of dollars. Some might call that a niche market! Neither waste any time on the 75% of the public who don’t like them.

The public chooses food and yes it’s emotional. Farmers may be large or small, dairy or hogs, niche market or futures market…but we’re all emotional! We all need to survive and there’s little more emotional than feeling like we’re being criticized for doing the best job possible. If you choose a Chevy truck is Ford insulted? No. You choose on what you need, what you prefer and, perhaps, what you *like*…emotion!

Perhaps we all need to show a little more emotion. We like to show the good stuff of course. A positive image – look how great we take care of our animals and environment. And most farmers do! But then instead of a pat on the back we get someone who just read a bad report in the news and imperfectly ask a question that sounds like accusing…and off to the defense we go.

Stop. Listen. Verify. Listen. It’s not personal…it’s choices.

So the idea of telling a less than appealing story based on emotion can seem horrifying. But guess what – animals die. Machinery breaks down. Things happen that aren’t pleasant and we deal with it and go on. I think it’s important to transparency to show the good of course, but don’t necessarily cover up the bad or how transparent is it?

“So and so has a good farm – they never have animals die on their farm!” Really? I think everyone large and small, indoor or outdoor, grass or confinement, occasionally has animals die. But do people assume it doesn’t happen if you don’t talk about it? Do they assume that because we’re transparent that all is rosy and sunny days?

There are over 308million people in the USA and every one of them makes a food choice three times a day or more. From the homeless veteran on the street to celebrities to the wealthy everyone needs food and everyone has a choice what that food will be.

And for all the organic, heritage, heirloom, grass fed, conventional, modern farms out there there are farm choices to fill those food choices. Too often we look short term – it’s competition. Look again at the network around us folks!

We’re a small peon in the food choice wheel at SlowMoneyFarm. We aren’t condemning those larger farms because we can’t feed the food choices they do! We’ve had some look down and insult us for “efficiency”, but offer more choices because of flexibility than many can. Choices. We could offer larger farms choices, if some worked with the smaller places. Corn, feed, hay has to come from somewhere and we don’t have land at this point to make it happen. So the farm willing to work with those smaller than them, as well as those larger, is an important link in the food chain.

We often say farmers are consumers too, but forget that when we get defensive. We forget that we’re all in the same network, and we can all work together. And we can do a better job of it to insure food choices – to allow and defend food choices. If someone chooses rabbit this weekend instead of beef, rest assured it’s not going to change the beef industry.

It’s just food choices.

Jan Hoadley runs SlowMoneyFarm, a direct sale operation supporting food choices. They have a focus on heritage and heirloom varieties/breeds, including Giant chinchilla rabbits for show and meat.

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Monocultures – More than Meets The Ear

August 7, 2012 / SethTeter / 13 comments

Seth Teter

I recently listened to a local farmer describe his extensive crop rotations, soil fertility and how he shunned chemicals.

Far superior to the unhealthy “monoculture” of conventional corn and soybeans planted by his neighbor, he said. And he made it all too clear – he didn’t care what his neighbor thought anyway.

It struck me: here was a farm where bugs and birds, trees and grass, crops and livestock all had a place. The one thing that didn’t belong, apparently, was a conversation with a neighbor.  The farmer didn’t seem to see the contradiction.

It points to a larger problem.

Criticism of our food system today stems from concern of consolidation: fewer food companies, fewer types of crops, fewer farmers, fewer choices for consumers, and so on.

We can debate the merits of each claim, but the fundamental fear is valid: a loss of diversity can mean a loss of security.

As this essay states: “Diversity means many links, many different approaches to the same problem. So a diverse community is a resilient community. A diverse community is one that can adapt to changing situations.”

Going back to the farmer who preached the ecology of agriculture, there was no similar concern for an ecology of relationships, an ecology of community or an ecology of thought.  There was no fear of a consolidation of ideas.

Indeed, monocultures had pervaded agriculture, if not in the barns and fields, then in its institutions, publications and social circles.

People of similar thought had joined together to become louder, and presumably, more influential. But this single-mindedness led to a predictable problem: resistance.

Individuals were reduced to labels: conventional and organic, big and small, farmer and consumer.  Each group had its own monocultural message. Year after year, the same arguments were applied, and our resistance to each other grew.

Fortunately, social media is allowing the emergence of a new conversation – one not based on loudness but on learning.

When it comes to how we communicate, the first thing we can learn is that there’s plenty to learn.

For example, there are farmers who, understandably, are proud of agriculture’s productivity: 1 farmer can now feed 150 people, they say.

Others, understandably, wonder why they should cheer the consolidation of their profession: It’s like teachers boasting about larger class sizes, one beginning farm couple told me – it’s not in our interest.

I once published an image of a dairy display that touted how modern dairy barns protected animals from weather and disease. One reader questioned if I was implying his pastured cows were mistreated.

Then there is the debate about what type of agriculture can or can’t “feed the world.” As if that was something we should or could decide.

In Ohio alone, we have about 75,000 farmers – and as I see it, about 75,000 types of agriculture. Likewise, our state demands a food system that serves about 10 million types of eaters.

We have all heard the farm-circle debate: Is “conventional” agriculture our only hope of producing enough food, or is it depleting the resources it depends upon? Is “organic” agriculture a model of environmental harmony, or will it leave countless to starve?

Those questions ignore the fact that neither can feed “the world”, because the people who eat aren’t choosing just one or the other.  And farmers don’t decide what people eat, eaters do. Farmers give them options.

Just today, I purchased a serving of ultra-pasteurized milk in an anonymous paper carton.  Tonight, I’ll drink milk out of a mason jar straight from a cow named Claire outside my back door. And I’ll gladly spend my days helping a farmer friend share why he raises swine using all the modern trappings before heading home to my heritage herd of outdoor pigs.

Because, in the end, “agriculture” isn’t feeding “the world.” People are feeding people. Not “consumers,” individuals.

As John Steinbeck wrote: “When our food and clothing and housing all are born in the complication of mass production, mass method is bound to get into our thinking and to eliminate all other thinking.”

That’s a problem because, in a changing world, sustainability hinges on our ability to adapt. So we need to expand our capacity to learn.

Agricultural critic Wendell Berry, while he infuriates as much as he inspires, gets it right in this passage:

“The most necessary thing in agriculture is not to invent new technologies or methods, not to achieve “breakthroughs,” but to determine what tools and methods are appropriate to specific people, places, and needs, and to apply them correctly. Application is the crux, because no two farms or farmers are alike; no two fields are alike…Application is the most important work, but also the most modest, complex, difficult, and long.”

Talking to each other would be a good start.

Seth Teter is an agricultural communicator at the Ohio Farm Bureau working to facilitate conversations at the intersection of food, agriculture and community.

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What do we feed our baby?

June 19, 2012 / MattBrowne / 4 comments

I never used to think about food other than wanting to put it in my mouth to stop my stomach from growling. I never thought about where it came from; whether it was fresh or not, local or not, frozen, fast food, drown in pesticides, or so on…I simply didn’t care. If I was going to be completely honest about it I would also tell you that didn’t change until I was 30 years old and met my wife.

You see, my wife was the first person that came into my life and showed me that food matters. She showed me how food was crucial to being healthy as well as the lifestyle that food is and that it can create. Now, fast forward five years later and I’m 35 years old and have taken a more active role in the food that I eat due to my wife and the other education I have received via reading and listening to others…especially some online folks like Trent Bown (@bowndairyman), Ray Prock (@RayProck), Janice Person (@JPlovesCotton), and Jeff Fowle (@JeffFowle). These people are great to follow, if only simply to learn from the tweets they send out as well as the fact that they’re available for questions any time.

I am amazed at all the things that come through in the media. An example would be that they say something like apples are the healthiest things for us one week but the following week they’re telling us they could lead to cancer or something crazy like they could cause shrinkage of the family jewels. What gives? » Read more..

 

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